I have a Starmate 1 installed in my Tacoma.It's hard wired into the ignition and I bought the mounting bracket for the dash.I had it put in by a local car audio shop,it's a clean install and the reception never fades.In my wifes Oddy,we have a Starmate 2 simply plugged into the power point and have the reciever quick mounted on the suction cup.....In the Oddy,particularily on clear days,the Sirius gets terrible interferance from a frequency in another City.When I asked the guys at the shop they told me that Sirius had dramatically reduced the transmitter power from the first gen to the second and that static was common.They also suggested that there was a booster of sorts available when the unit gets hard wired....I've been meaning to have it installed but can't seem to find the time/cash to have it done.

Has anyone heard of this problem and would it be tough to do it myself as opposed to being without the van for a day?

I had this problem in my Dodge. I purchased what was called a "direct connect". It plugged into the radio antanna port, and the radio antennea plugged into it. It gave wonderfull sound, and static free clarity. I found mine at Circut City. It was about $30.00 iirc.

Thanks Chris,sounds like the gizmo they mentioned.Did you direct hard wire the whole system yourself?

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Sure did. Its pretty easy. Remove head unit, unplug antennea plug in "Direct connect" and reconnect antennea. Then find out where to route the wires. I was pretty unhappy with my satalite sound quality before I did this. I was actually considering just getting rid of it. After I did it, it was great! Its still not quite CD sound, but just by a little bit. Much better than FM. Its probably comparable to MP3 sound.